Children Mental Health Problems: Parent Report Form of Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire

Objective: This study was performed to evaluate the mental health status of 6 – 11 year-old children of Tehran in a community-based sample using the Persian version of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) Parent-report. Method: Parents of 799 children (6 to 11 years old) were selected from 250 clusters of the entire 22 municipality areas of Tehran; they responded to 25 questions of the Persian version of SDQ parent-report form. The mean score in each subscale and the frequency of each symptom domains based on the Goodmanʹs cutoff points, were determined. Results: The prevalence of symptom domain was relatively high. Among the studied children, 25.8% had total score equal to 17 or more. The most frequent problem domain was conduct. The studied boys had statistically significant higher mean scores in hyperactivity and peer problem subscales. Conclusion: Frequency of all the problem symptom domains was high in children from different urban areas of Tehran. Further evaluation for the reason of such a high frequency is necessary.